1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to channel sounding, and more specifically, to channel sounding techniques for a wireless communication system.
2. Related Art
In general, coded orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (COFDM) systems support high data rate wireless transmission using orthogonal channels, which typically offer immunity against fading and inter-symbol interference (ISI) without requiring implementation of elaborate equalization techniques. Typically, COFDM systems split data into N streams, which are independently modulated on parallel spaced subcarrier frequencies or tones. The frequency separation between subcarriers is 1/T, where T is the COFDM symbol time duration. Each symbol may include a guard interval (or cyclic prefix) to maintain the orthogonality of the symbols. In general, COFDM systems have utilized an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) to generate a sampled (or discrete) composite time-domain signal. One undesirable attribute of COFDM systems is that they may exhibit relatively large peak-to-average power ratio (PAR), when signals from different subcarriers add constructively. A large PAR (and/or large cubic metric (CM)) is undesirable as it requires a large dynamic range for a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) implemented within a transmitter of a COFDM system. Consequently, the DAC may be used inefficiently as most subcarrier amplitudes use a fraction of the range of the DAC.
In a typical implementation, the output of the DAC is filtered before being applied to a power amplifier. As power amplifiers tend to be non-linear, in-band distortion and spectral spreading (or spectral regrowth) may occur. As is known, spectral regrowth may occur when a band-limited time-varying (non-constant) envelope signal is passed through a non-linear circuit. One technique for addressing non-linearity of a power amplifier has operated the power amplifier at a relatively large output power back-off (OBO). Unfortunately, operating a power amplifier at a relatively large OBO (or power de-rating) reduces the power efficiency of the amplifier. For example, at a 6 dB (decibel) OBO, a power amplifier may exhibit a fifty percent (or more) loss in efficiency. To reduce the PAR and/or CM of COFDM systems, various designers have also implemented or proposed hard limiting (or clipping) directly on the signal to be transmitted. Unfortunately, directly clipping the signal to be transmitted may cause undesirable spectral regrowth and inter-user interference (or inter-carrier interference (ICI)) in systems that utilize multiple access mode.
Discrete Fourier transform-spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-SOFDM) has been proposed as the modulation technique for the uplink of evolved-universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA). Single carrier transmission schemes, such as DFT-SOFDM, generally facilitate further power de-rating reduction through the use of, for example, specific modulation or coding schemes, or clipping and spectral filtering of a signal to be transmitted. Moreover, the PAR and CM of a basic DFT-SOFDM (or single carrier-frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA)) system is generally reduced, as compared to the PAR and CM of a basic COFDM system. To further reduce the PAR and CM of basic DFT-SOFDM transmitters, one group of designers has proposed pre-processing an input signal prior to performing a fast Fourier transform (FFT) on a group of symbols associated with the input signal. Following this approach, selected input symbols and/or bits may be attenuated in order to reduce the PAR and CM at the output of an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) of the DFT-SOFDM system.
In general, wireless networks have used an estimated received signal strength and an estimated carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR) of a received signal to determine operational characteristics of the networks. As one example, IEEE 802.16e compliant mobile stations (MSs) are required to estimate a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) and a CINR of a received signal. In general, CINR at an MS may be calculated as the ratio of an RSSI of a serving base station (BS) to summed RSSIs of non-serving BSs added to a white noise power of a receiver of the MS. The RSSI associated with a serving BS may be used by an MS for uplink power control and the CINR, which is reported to the serving BS, may be used by the serving BS to adapt a downlink transmission rate to link conditions.
Accurate reported CINRs are desirable, as inaccurate reported CINRs may impact performance of a wireless network. For example, reporting a CINR that is above an actual CINR may decrease network throughput due to frame re-transmission, while reporting a CINR that is below the actual CINR may cause the serving BS to schedule data rates below a supportable data rate. According to IEEE 802.16e, RSSI and CINR estimates at an MS are derived based on a preamble signal, which is an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) symbol that is transmitted at the beginning of each OFDMA frame.
Similarly, wireless networks that employ third-generation partnership project long-term evolution (3GPP-LTE) compliant architectures are required to employ uplink reference signals (RSs), which are scheduled to user equipment (subscriber stations (SSs)) within a 3GPP-LTE network. Respective sequences of the RSs are used to uniquely identify an SS and, when transmitted from the SS to a serving base station (BS), may be used by the serving BS in channel characterization. Known channel sounding (channel characterization) approaches have sounded a channel over a relatively long time period, irrespective of geometries of subscriber stations (SSs) with respect to a serving base station (BS). In wireless networks employing known channel sounding approaches, channel sounding bandwidth may consume a relatively large portion of an uplink (UL) channel.
What is needed are techniques for reducing channel sounding bandwidth.